Stargate Babylon
by Tscorpio1701
Summary: The Gate has been reopened in the 23rd century, opening up a doorway to a universe of both wonder and horror. Currently being revised.
1. Prologue revised

Stargate and Babylon 5 franchises are owned by their respective copyright owners, I make no money off of this, so if you sue me you'll get nothing.

**Stargate Babylon**

**Prologue**

Ten million years ago, a race called the Alterans arrived in the Milky-way galaxy, they sought to terraform new worlds and upon these worlds they place a large metal ring capable of forming a stable wormhole between two such devices. As they explored they discovered other intelligent life amongst the stars, and formed a Great Alliance with the Nox, Furling, and Asgaard, and in time the race of Gate Builders became known as the Ancients.

Also residing in the Milky-way Galaxy were other races with interstellar civilizations, as the earliest ones to reach for the stars they called themselves First Ones, amongst these were two races who took opposing ideological viewpoints on the nature of change.

Whispered in legend as amongst the oldest First Ones, their true name is ten thousand characters long. To outsiders they are known as the Shadows. Arachnid in appearance, they seek to manipulate behind the scenes to prove their belief that conflict weeds out the weak and forces worthy races to evolve in the resulting Chaos.

Directly opposing the Shadows is one of the youngest of the First Ones, a race of telepathic cephalopods who believe their path of Order and Light to be the only way, indoctrinating their followers to chase away the darkness of the Shadows.

The conflicts between the Vorlons and Shadows over millions of years have scarred large sections of the galaxy, exterminated many races and devastated worlds. This cycle of conflict was broken when contact was made between the Great Alliance and the First Ones; Lorien the First of the First Ones sought the help of the Alterans to protect the younger races, to allow them to develop on their own free from the wars of the others. The Alterans agreed to intercede as the Vorlons and Shadows use of Planet Killers threatened their Furling and Nox allies, as well as the seeded new worlds.

Five million years ago, after many years of war, the Shadows deployed a plague which devastated the Alterans, it forced many to leave this plane of existence via ascension, though a few Alteran descendants lived in nearby galaxies and were able to cut contact in time. To eliminate the Shadow plague and reseed life on the devastated worlds the Alterans built a massive device on a planet later known as Dakara, the last survivors activated the device, then sent a signal to all gates inside Shadow and Vorlon claimed space to destroy them, and deny their enemies any ability to reverse engineer them.

After the war, many First Ones decided to cut off all contact with younger races, some even decided to depart from the galaxy completely. Those that remained were content to stay within their own space and let events outside pass by with minor observation, mainly watching the movements of the Shadows and Vorlon fleets.

The plague also caused the disappearance of the Furlings, records of what happened has been lost not even surviving in myth. The Nox were hard hit too, the massive casualties of the war drove them to become isolationist pacifists, unwilling to interact with the wider galaxy. The Asgard as the youngest race in the Great Alliance got off fairly lightly, their homeworld resided in a nearby galaxy and was safe from direct fighting, however they were unable to stop a Shadow bio-weapon from rendering them sterile as a race, as a result they turned to cloning to maintain their numbers.

Roughly thirty thousand years ago, a new race joined the galactic scene, a worm-like parasite named the Goa'uld first took over a reptilian biped called the Unas on their homeworld, before they began a campaign of slavery and conquest through the Stargate network. Eventually they came to a garden world called Earth, with a species that was much easier for them to control than the Unas hosts. They spread the humans through their domains, and modified the strongest to form a warrior class who would also carry their young to term. Called the Jaffa, they would strike fear into the slaves and enemies of their Goa'uld masters.

About ten thousand years ago, a group of Ancient descendants returned to Earth after fleeing their homes in a nearby galaxy, they detected the Goa'uld presence and were offended by the Goa'ulds attitude and treatment of the Alterans chosen successors, humanity. Contacting their allies in the Great Alliance, they declared war and drove the Goa'uld off the planet. They were unable to rescue the populations taken off world as all four members of the Alliance lacked the ships to do more than protect their own holdings, but they were able to force the Goa'uld to sign a treaty to protect selected worlds from interference or movement into several areas of the Galaxy.

The humans of Earth buried their Stargate under a large cover stone, and gradually forgot it existed as they fell into in-fighting, even as the visitors from the stars faded in myths and legends as Gods. Now the humans are reaching for the stars themselves and have contacted new races, what wonders and horrors from the past will they unlock amongst the stars?


	2. Stargate revised

Stargate and Babylon 5 franchises are owned by their respective copyright owners, I make no money off of this. The first six chapters incorporate the storyline of Stargate: The Movie.

**Stargate Babylon**

**Chapter 1: Stargate**

It is the year 2237, five years after the Dilgar War ended. Since then the Earth Alliance has been expanding its sphere of influence, setting up outposts all through its local sectors and expanding trade with the local powers, most notably it efforts with the League of Non-Aligned Worlds to rebuild them after they were invaded by the Dilgar Empire. The Earth Alliance has proudly taken its place on the galactic stage after their vigorous showing against the Dilgar, looking forward to a golden future as one of the strongest powers in known space.

At this moment a middle-aged woman with dark hair streaked with grey lines and a golden medallion hanging around her neck, was tidying up a little at the Langford family manor just outside of Chicago. She was practically hip deep in centuries old papers, ranging from ancient financial documents to old black and white photos, yellowed with age, and several early data crystals. She spotted an old file folder from the early twentieth century and leaned over to pick it up, going through the papers in it, what she discovered was beyond astonishing. It detailed an archaeological dig in Egypt during 1928 led by one of her ancestors and the discovery of a ring device underneath some ancient cover stones with both classic ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs and some ancient writing of unknown origin.

She learned that the ring device had been shipped to America and was studied unsuccessfully before the Great Depression of the 1930s put a stop to any more funding. During the Second World War research was started up again to see if the device could be used as a weapon against the Axis powers, but due to an apparent accident involving one of the leading scientists on the team all work was stopped and the Stargate was buried and forgotten.

Doctor Catherine Langford, the descendant of Doctor Paul Langford, was intrigued by her discovery. She searched for more papers concerning the device and found more and more notes on it, made by her ancestor and his team. She also found various returned letters made by her namesake, his daughter, to restart the project, all of them rejected. She fingered the little golden pendant with the eye of Ra on it, passed on from daughter to daughter as a good luck charm, and amazingly it seemed to hold true with the documents having survived for this long.

She realized that Earth Force may be sitting on the greatest discovery in the history of the Earth Alliance. She would use her resources within IPX, Interplanetary Expeditions, to get research started up again. She could not know that she would be opening a door to an even bigger galaxy than had already been explored, with wonders to satisfy the most subtle and gross, and terrors to freeze the soul.

* * *

Two years later, at the old Plaza Hotel in New York, Doctor Langford, whose long dark hair was even more streaked with grey, found herself walking up the stairs to a lecture being given by a young and very brilliant archaeologist named Daniel Jackson, who was trying to get his point about the origins of the Great Pyramids of Giza across to a bunch of deaf eared 'respected' archaeologists and various other experts and interested parties, including herself.

"... There are symbols painted everywhere, names, lists of offerings... Every other architectural structure at the time was covered in detailed hieroglyphics. When is the academic community going to accept the fact that the pharaohs of the 4th Dynasty did not build the Great Pyramids? Inside the Pyramid, the most incredible structure ever erected, there are no writings whatsoever."

The crowd became agitated at that statement.

"Doctor Jackson, you left out the fact that Colonel Vyse discovered workmen's inscriptions of Khufu's name within the Pyramid," said one of his rivals.

"His discovery was a fraud," retorted Doctor Jackson as he started to demonstrate on the large interactive touch screen behind him.

"Well I hope you can prove it," there was gentle laughter at that.

"Who do you think built the Pyramids?" asked an older British gentleman. You could hear a pin drop in the room as the crowd waited for the good Doctor Jackson's answer.

"I don't know who built them, but..."

"Men from Atlantis," said the same gentleman humorously, "Or the Centauri, or the Vree perhaps!" several more people laughed out loud at that as the audience began to stand and leave the room.

"The point is not who built them, it's 'when' they were built. We all know from undisputed geological evidence that the Sphinx dates from a much earlier time period than was thought, knowing this I feel that we must re-evaluate everything that we have come to accept..."

Everyone continued to leave at that point, except for one person as Doctor Jackson descended from the podium down to the floor, continuing to give his lecture.

"I have been able to show that a fully developed writing system appeared in the first two dynasties, which almost as if it was based on an even earlier type..."

He had now stopped talking as he saw that only one person had stayed after everyone had gone. His old mentor Doctor Robert Jordan.

"Is there a lunch or something?" he asked as he saw the rest of the audience walk out, but he knew that no one had accepted his theories, being far too outlandish to even comprehend.

"Don't mind them, Daniel, they won't accept anything except conclusive proof of your theories, and since we made First Contact with the Centauri almost a century ago the only race we know of for certain that has visited us in the past was the Vree, and those visitations were more along the line of practical jokes," said Doctor Jordan.

Doctor Jackson merely nodded and packed up his materials, grabbed his small Lap Top and headed for his room to pack his bags. Leaving the hotel, he stepped outside into the pouring rain, getting soaked almost instantly.

"I should have brought an umbrella," he complained as he pulled down the hood of his coat.

"Doctor Jackson?" asked an Earth Force officer standing beside a parked luxury air car.

"What, yes?"

"Someone would like to speak to you," the officer said, holding an umbrella above him.

"Earth Force, what's all this about?"

"Just get in the air limo, please!"

"Are we going somewhere?" asked Doctor Jackson as the Earth Force officers ushered him into the air car.

"You'll be fine. We'll take care of these." The Earth Force officer took Doctor Jackson's bags as he settled himself in the rear passenger seat, noticing the older lady in the other seat, holding a folder on her lap.

"Dr. Jackson, are these your parents?" she asked kindly as she showed him a photo.

"Foster parents," he answered curiously. "What's all this about, and who are you?"

"My name is Doctor Catherine Langford."

"The Catherine Langford, the one who discovered the ancient alien ruins on Orion III?" he asked surprised, it wasn't everyday that you met one of the most revered archaeologist in the field.

"That was a long time ago. I am here to offer you a job."

"What kind of job?"

"Translation, Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs, you interested?" she asked as she showed him a picture of a collection of tablets that formed a circle with ancient carved writing on them. The inner track seemed to be made up of regular hieroglyphics, but he didn't recognize the symbols on the outer track or the cartouche on the centre tablet.

"Doctor Jackson this is a one-time offer and you will need to sign this non-disclosure agreement," she said, handing over a military electronic pad, which specified his contract as a civilian consultant. He quickly signed the dotted line, and submitted his thumb-print on the miniature thumb-print scanner which lit up as it scanned his thumb-print, confirming his identity.

Doctor Langford flashed a kindly smile as the young man signed and gestured to the officers outside to put Doctor Jackson's bags into the boot of her luxury air car.

"So, where are we going?" Doctor Jackson asked.

"Ever been to the Cheyenne Mountain complex?" she asked lightly as the air car took off into the air, flying over the regular traffic and out of the city.

* * *

Three hours later the air car arrived at the base of Cheyenne Mountain. As the air car that Daniel and Doctor Langford rode in flew down and converted from flight-mode to ground-mode Daniel was jostled awake by the landing and saw the gaping maw of the entrance, startling the sleep addled mind of the young archaeologist. They entered the large tunnel entrance, big enough for large ground vehicles to enter, and parked in an internal garage.

"Come, Doctor Jackson," commanded Doctor Langford as she exited the vehicle. "We still have a way to go before we reach our destination." She led him down an oval corridor the walls were a smooth, almost polished, concrete, with metal bracings at regular intervals and covered in steel wire mesh bolted into the walls, an old holdover from the Cold War of the 20th century when this place housed NORAD. They continued down the corridor until they reached the end of it where an elevator was waiting for them, along with an Earth Force officer wearing a standard blue duty uniform with commander's insignia.

"Doctor Jackson, this is Commander Kawalsky, one of the officers assigned to this project."

"A pleasure to meet you, Doctor Jackson," greeted Kawalsky politely. "This way please," he said, gesturing towards the elevator and entered, with the two scientists following close behind him. He got out his military ID card and slotted it into the scanner. "Sub level 28," said Kawalsky and it began to move down, deeper into the mountain. Before they reached their floor Doctor Jackson sneezed, rather loudly, and blew his nose into a handkerchief.

"Cold?" asked Kawalsky.

"Allergies," answered Doctor Jackson, he had been plagued by his allergies for as long as he could remember. "This always happens when I travel."

They stepped off the elevator at level 28 and continued walking; the hallways were circular and made of hard smooth concrete with various colour coded pipes running roughly mid height along the sides, and along the ceilings. On the way they ran into a pair of scientists, a man wearing a maroon sweater with dark brown trousers and a woman wearing a dark green button down sweater and glasses, someone who hadn't responded well to corrective sight therapy.

"Daniel may I introduce to you doctors Gary Meyers and Barbara Shore," said Doctor Langford. "They have been working on the tablet translation and examination for the past two years, and been a part of my team since the beginning."

"Doctor Jackson, it's a real pleasure to meet you, how are you?" Doctor Meyers asked pleasantly.

"I'm good, thank you. Doctor Langford what is this place? I've been to NORAD before, on a tourist trip when I was young, but this was definitely not on the tour," Daniel asked curiously.

Kawalsky answered for Doctor Langford. "This used to be part of the missile testing complex for early American ballistic missiles, the Titan II to be exact. The Earth Force Corp. of Engineers converted the old Cheyenne Mountain complex and expanded it deep underground, and we are now currently one mile down below the surface."

"Impressive," said Doctor Jackson quietly as they continued down the hallways and soon came to a set of double doors with the words "Research Laboratory – Authorized Personnel Only." They entered and on the far wall he saw twelve stone wedge-shaped tablets hung upon it, surrounding a central circular one, forming an almost perfect circle when put together. Doctor Jackson just looked at it with wide eyed astonishment.

"Doctor Jackson, welcome to the Well," said Doctor Langford as she gestured around the work space, with various ancient artefacts of obvious Egyptian origin.

"This is incredible, where did you find this?" the good Doctor Jackson asked in awe.

"Giza Plateau 1928 by one of my ancestors, it's been in storage for over three hundred years."

"I've never seen anything like this."

"Of course you haven't, no one has."

"There are two lines of hieroglyphs," said Doctor Meyers, gesturing to the symbols, arranged in two distinct circles when the wedges were arranged around the central stone. "The inner track has the classic figures, but the outer track is like the cartouche in the centre, it's got writing like we've never found before, here or on any world in explored space."

The centre circle had a set of odd seven symbols running vertically in the centre, with the bottom one raised instead of chiselled like the others. On either side of the odd symbols were more hieroglyphics and what seemed to look like birds wings, like early renditions of an angel's wings from early biblical scripts.

"Those aren't hieroglyphics," said Doctor Jackson as he intensely studied the symbols, trying to remember every dead language from the period he ever read about. "Maybe some form of hieratic or maybe cuneiform."

He then looked at the translation, written up on a chalk board. "Well the translation of the inner track is wrong. They must have used Budge, I don't know why they keep referring his books anymore," he said in exasperation as he began to rub out portions of the translation, re-translating it himself.

"Excuse me, what are you doing?" asked Doctor Meyers. "We've used every know technique available to us..."

"That's a curious word here, Gebeh, and an adverbial, sedjem-en-ef." He continued to write on the chalkboard.

"Sealed and buried."

"Excuse me, what are you doing?" Meyers asked again. He crossed out 'coffin' and wrote 'For all Eternity.'

"For all time," he continued to translate. "Who the hell translated this?"

Doctors Shore and Langford looked pointedly at Doctor Meyers.

"I did," he said nervously.

"Well this should read, 'A million years into the sky is Ra the Sun God, sealed and buried for all time.' It's not 'Door to Heaven,'" he said, crossing it out. "It's 'Stargate.'"

Doctor Langford smiled for the young archaeologist discovery of the device's true name.

"So, why is the military so interested in five thousand year old Egyptian tablets?"

"My report says over ten thousand," said an Earth Force officer who just entered the lab, he had light brown hair, a haggard worn face of a man who had seen much hardship while in the service, but also had a slight irreverent look about him.

"Afternoon sir," said Commander Kawalsky.

"Do I know you?" Doctor Langford asked.

"I'm Captain Jack O'Neil, from General West's office; I'll be taking over from now on."

"This figure ten thousand years, that's ludicrous, the Egyptian culture didn't even exist at that time," said Doctor Jackson.

"We know," answered Doctor Shore. "But the sonic and radiocarbon tests are conclusive."

"Well, these are cover stones, was there a tomb underneath?"

"No, no, no, but we did find something a lot more interesting..." she began, but was interrupted.

"Excuse me, this information has become classified," said Captain O'Neill. "From now on no information is to be passed on to non-military personnel without my express permission," he said to Commander Kawalsky then walked out of the lab for his office and quarters one level up.

"Catherine what's going on here?" asked Doctor Meyers.

"I'm not sure, but I intend to find out," she said as she made to follow the Captain. She managed to catch up to him just before he was about to enter the lift.

"Captain O'Neill, I was under the impression that I had complete autonomy."

"Plans change, whether we like it or not," said Jack, looking sympathetically at the good doctor,

"Why you, why were you assigned to this project, your no scientist," she said, noticing his division badge on his left shoulder, the standard yellow EA symbol of the Earth Alliance with the SEAL Trident in the centre, making him a member of the Special Forces division of the EFNI, Earth Force Naval Intelligence.

"I'm here in case you succeed," he said in all seriousness. "But anything of a diplomatic or scientific nature I'll leave to the experts, even though I so enjoy those things."

Doctor Langford could only snort at the Captain's sarcasm as he walked away. She also got the feeling that he was hiding something, what he was hiding she didn't know, but she just knew that it was deeply personal. She returned to 'the Well' and her and her team, now including Doctor Jackson, went to work.

* * *

Two weeks went by and still no results as of yet. Doctor Jackson was working into the early hours of the morning again, as he usually did, listening to his own voice on a recorder, trying to find some clue in the dozens of observations he had done over the last two weeks.

_"Completed search in cuneiform and other pre-dynastic hieroglyphics. No matches whatsoever. I have exhausted all reference material in comparing the symbols on the cartouche to all known writing samples from the period, pre and post, still no similarities. I'm never gonna get paid..."_

At that point Doctor Jackson turned off the recorder and went to get some coffee, if you could call the swill they give the scientists here coffee. He noticed that the coffee pot was empty, so he took it outside to the drinking fountain outside the Lab, where a guard was sat down reading Universe Today just outside the door. He flashed the guard his ID then got to fill the pot with water.

As it was filling up Doctor Jackson noticed the constellation on the front page of the newspaper, an idea suddenly hit him. Forgetting about the coffee for the moment he took the section of the newspaper with the constellation and took it inside the lab, then quickly remembering to ask the guard if he could borrow it afterwards, then continued on into the lab. He took a black marker pen and made the lines connecting the stars thicker, then compared them to one of the symbols on the cartouche.

"Orion," he said out loud.

* * *

The next day Doctor Jackson made his way to the main briefing room. It was long and rectangular with a metal staircase in the corner, going down to another floor. In the middle of the room stood a long table with multiple inbuilt monitors, on the one side was a long holographic screen, displaying a scene from nature right now, to give the illusion of being on the surface, though everybody knew better.

Milling about the briefing room were several high ranking military officers and the scientists from Doctor Williams team, though today there was someone extra on the team, a young blond, female Earth Force lieutenant that he hadn't been introduced to yet.

"Doctor Jackson may I introduce General West, the commanding officer of this facility," said Doctor Williams.

"Hi," said Daniel nervously as he shook the General's hand.

"And this is Lieutenant Samantha Carter, one of the foremost astrophysicists in the field."

"Pleasure to meet you Doctor," she said.

"Hello," replied Doctor Jackson, getting even more nervous.

"So, you think you've solved in fourteen days that what they couldn't solve in two years?" asked the General as he took his seat at the head of the table.

"Two years?" asked Doctor Jackson, surprised that they hadn't figured it out in all this time.

"Any time," said General West, growing a little impatient.

"If you would all direct your attention to your monitors," said Doctor Jackson as he inserted a data crystal into a slot, and displayed the cover stones.

"On the outer track you see these symbols, which you believed to be a message to be translated, were in fact star constellations." He put up a series of constellations next to the symbols. "Now these constellations were placed in a unique order, forming a map or an address of sorts. Seven points to outline a course to a position, and um..." He paused slightly as he gathered his thoughts. "To find a destination within any three dimensional space, you need six points of reference to determine an exact location," he said as a three dimensional cube appeared on the big screen with six dots representing the reference points, connected by several red lines. This was a familiar way of navigating space for just about every Earth Force officer who had spent time in the fleet.

"You said you needed seven points?" asked General West.

"No, six for the destination, but you need a point of origin to chart a course," he answered as another dot appeared outside the box and connected where the lines intersected.

"Except there's only six symbols on the cartouche," Doctor Meyers pointed out.

"Well, the seventh isn't inside the cartouche, it's just below it here," he said, highlighting the little symbol of a pyramid with small circle above it connected by a line and two little figures praying next to it. There was complete silence in the room.

"He did it," said Doctor Langford.

"No, that symbol isn't anywhere on the device."

"What device?"

General West looked to Captain O'Neill who gave a why not gesture.

"Show him."

An aide activated a set of controls and the big holographic screen reseeded into an armoured blast door, which retracted up, revealing a real window down into a cavernous room, which used to be the nuclear missile silo where a Titan missile used to be housed. Down at the bottom was a large black metal ring with nine chevrons on it, mounted to several superconductors with a ramp going up to it, like some kind of door way. Doctor Jackson and the scientists went down the spiral staircase to control room; monitors were all over the place, all standard Earth Force touch screens, with a large, reinforced, observation window looking directly at the big circle. Doctor Jackson just couldn't believe his eyes.

"What is that?" he asked.

"It's your Stargate," answered Doctor Langford as the inner ring started to spin; a camera was focused on the top centre chevron, seeing the different symbols pass by. Doctor Jackson looked intently at the monitor, and then noticed something.

"Stop," he said as a particular symbol came into view, then borrowed a marker pen from one of the technicians and started drawing on the monitor.

"Hey, what are you doing, don't do that," said the tech as Doctor Jackson drew.

"A pyramid with the sun high with two little men praying next to it," he said as he finished.

"He's right, it was right in front of us the whole time," said Doctor Meyers in realization.

"General West, Jackson has identified the seventh symbol," said Doctor Langford over the intercom.

"Go ahead," said the General.

Giving a quick nod to Sam she said, "Commence dialling sequence."

"Commencing dialling sequence," said Lieutenant Carter as she inputted the first symbol into the dialling computer, making the ring spin around until the chosen symbol reached the top centre chevron, glowed then seemed locked the symbol, then the bottom left chevron opened and locked in place.

"Chevron one holding, chevron one is locked in place."

Then it span around in the opposite direction.

"Chevron two holding, chevron two locked."

"Chevron three holding, chevron three locked."

"Chevron four holding, chevron four locked."

As the fourth chevron engaged the technicians in the Gate Room began to evacuate, knowing what happened the last time they had tried to activate the ring.

"This was under the Cover stones?" Doctor Jackson asked.

"Yes, my ancestor, Doctor Paul Langford, discovered it back in 1928; it is made out of a mineral very similar to Quantium 40, but different. We've named it Quantium 50."

"Chevron five holding, chevron five locked."

The room began to shake slightly, like a small tremor.

"Chevron six holding, chevron six locked."

Now it felt like the room was shaking apart.

"This is as far as we have ever been able to get," said Doctor Langford as the shaking became ever more ferocious, then came the seventh and final symbol...

"Chevron seven locked," said Carter as sparks began to fly from the attached superconductors. A great whoosh of blue 'water' shot out of the Stargate, and then was just as suddenly sucked back into a vortex behind the gate, next it was still, like a pool of water, only vertical. The 'water' bathed the gate room an ethereal sort of light, constantly rippling.

"Send in the probe," ordered one of the General's aides.

A small six tracked probe came out of the left blast door then up the ramp, moving slowly towards the Stargate. There were several GROPOs in the Gate Room, pointing their PPGs at the Stargate, as if worried that something was going to come out of it

"What are we seeing here?" Doctor Jackson asked.

"What you're seeing here Doctor Jackson is the event horizon of an artificially generated wormhole," said Carter.

"Wow," was all he could say as the probe entered the water and seemingly disappeared.

"Probe is en route, and we're tracking it..." said Carter as they tracked the probe through the wormhole.

"Probe has arrived at the wormhole's destination, calculations show that it's roughly 300 light years away, beyond explored space."

"Receiving telemetry from the probe, video and sensors" reported one of the technicians.

"Atmospheric pressure, slightly higher than Earth sea level and trace amounts of carbon dioxide and other trace elements, nitrogen and most importantly oxygen. Gravity at 1.02Gs, we have viable life support at close to Earth norm."

A vid feed came through on the monitors, revealing that the Stargate on the other end was in a large room, with only one way out.

"Could you move the camera around, take a look around?"

The technician nodded and then gave the probe new instructions. The camera panned around the chamber, bathed in the light from the active Stargate. A couple of meters away from the steps and to the side of the Stargate stood a pedestal covered in the same symbols as were on the Stargate.

"Looks like some kind of console, maybe to control the Gate?" Sam theorized.

"There wasn't one at Giza," said Doctor Langford.

The Gate chose that moment to disengage, the wormhole disappearing and all telemetry from the probe lost.

"What happened?" Doctor Langford asked.

"I don't know, running diagnostics now," said Carter as she began running though the various diagnostic systems she and several other engineers and scientists had designed for the 'gate.'

"According to the diagnostics the gate suffered a brief power failure and at the same time there was some sort of interference that cut our telemetry, I'm making some adjustments to the gate's power interface, it should prevent any power failures in the future."

"Keep an eye on it Samantha. Re-dial the gate please."

"Yes ma'am."

Once again the gate began dialling, and once again the room began to shake again.

"We really need to lessen these vibrations," Carter commented as she inputted the commands into the dialling computer. Once again a great whoosh of unstable energy erupted then settled into a standing pool of water. "We are again receiving probe telemetry," she said.

The probe began to move out of the chamber that the Stargate on the other end was in, constantly sending telemetry back to Earth through the gate. It continued on though many corridors and antechambers, exploring every little room it came across, though there was only one floor. The last chamber before exiting was filled with dozens of pillars, supporting a ceiling several meters high. Doctor Jackson made a mental note to himself that there were no writings on any of the surfaces.

The probe had now exited the building that housed the Stargate, revealing a vast desert landscape with temperatures as high as 35 degrees Celsius in the shade.

"Let's park the probe outside just inside the exit of the building, the exploration team can use it later on to relay messages though to the Stargate when they go through," Carter told the probe driver on a separate console. "Cutting power to the gate, now," she said and the Stargate shut down with a whoosh.

* * *

In the control room General West, along with his advisers and Captain O'Neill, were studying the images and sensor data picked up by the probe.

"So this is what we got back from the probe," said the General. "Freeze and enhance," he said as the camera panned around the alien gate room then focused on the other Stargate. "Both gates must have functioned as a doorway between our two worlds."

"The symbols on the gate match those on ours almost perfectly," said Doctor Jackson. "The only symbol that's different is the point of origin, but we don't know the coordinates for Earth in the alien coordinate system."

"Based on this information I think we may have to scrub the mission," said the General. "This project is for nought without a reconnaissance mission, and without those coordinates anyone we send might not come home."

"Not necessarily sir," said Lieutenant Carter.

"Please explain Lieutenant."

"We should check with Explorer Command and ask if they have any ships close to that planet's system, if we can get one of their jump capable scout ships and later perhaps one of our Explorer class ships could build a jump-gate..."

"Alright, I'll have a talk with Admiral Leftcourt, but considering the distance it may be weeks before we could get a ship out there," said General West. "Captain that should give you enough time to train Doctor Jackson for this mission, as well as a diplomat that will be coming along with you. Lieutenant Carter will also accompany you on this mission."

"Sir, do I really need to take along a pair of scientists and a diplomat along, it could get messy," said O'Neill, not really liking the idea of being saddled with non-combatants in an unknown situation.

"If we encounter anything or anyone on that planet that might be friendly you'll need both a linguist and a diplomat, and Lieutenant Carter is our foremost expert on the Stargate, her being on the team is non-negotiable."

"I'm an Earth Force officer just like you sir, and just because my reproductive organs are on the inside instead of the outside, doesn't mean that I can't handle whatever you can handle, sir," Carter said testily.

O'Neill smirked a little and said," Oh this has nothing to do with you being a woman, Lieutenant." He paused dramatically. "I like women; I just have a little problem with scientists."

"Captain, I logged over fifty combat missions during the Dilgar war, is that tough enough for you, or do we have to arm wrestle?"

'I like this one,' thought O'Neill. 'She's got spunk, but a little tense.'

General West smiled as he saw how the two of them were getting along so well.

"Then Captain I suggest you begin training the good doctor in the use of military armour and weapons," said the General.

"Yes sir."

* * *

Over the next week Doctor Jackson got a crash course in the use of power armour from Captain O'Neill and others that were going on the mission. It felt lighter than he expected, but walking and running around in it took some getting used to, and he had to take it back to the base's armourer to be customized for him. A week later, while Daniel and O'Neill were on the firing range getting Daniel checked out on various Earth Force small arms, along with Lieutenant Carter who was doing her yearly quals on both standard PPG pistols and rifles, General West popped in with the diplomat in tow.

The diplomat was a middle aged fellow with dark grey hair and a large bald patch forming on top of his head, and had a weathered face, but his blue eyes were keen and alert, and right now they reflected a man who was happy to see the captain.

"Captain O'Neill, Doctor Jackson, may I introduce David Sheridan, he's the one coming along with you through the Stargate."

"Nice to see you again, Jack," Sheridan said in greeting.

"David, so you're the diplomat they've assigned to us," said O'Neill smiling.

"How know him, Captain?" Daniel asked in confusion, not really seeing how a special ops soldier like O'Neill could possibly know a famous diplomat like Sheridan, the man who had brokered several of the mutual defence treaties with the League-of-Non-Aligned-Worlds after the Dilgar War.

"Poker with his son," O'Neill said succinctly. "So how's John doing?"

"He's just graduated from the academy, and is now serving as a Starfury pilot on the Lexington," said the older diplomat.

"Good for him," said Jack smiling

"I got the go ahead from the President and Explorer Command has diverted the Amundsen to the sector in question," said the General. "However without a tachyon beacon on that planet finding the system will be difficult and would require the Amundsen and her escorts to drop out of hyperspace to get an astrological fix on their location every few light years."

"We'll just have to take a tachyon beacon with us to the planet when we go," said the Captain. "When will the Amundsen get out of range of the regular beacon network?"

"Another week or so, by their estimate, more time for your team to get Doctor Jackson and Mister Sheridan up to speed on basic power armour and for Carter to reacquaint herself with her gear."

"Don't worry sir, I've kept up with my quals and I completed advanced power armour training just a few weeks ago, before we opened the Stargate," she said smiling.

"Carter, when did you ever have the time?" the Captain asked incredulously as he couldn't imagine anyone could possibly make the time to complete such rigorous courses while at the same time working on such an important project.

"I just made the time sir, besides most of the hard work of creating the gate interface was completed months ago, it was only Doctor Jackson's last piece of the puzzle that we needed to get the gate open again."

"Good to hear," said the general. "You'll head out in one week from now, before the Amundsen gets out of the range of the local beacon network. Mister Sheridan I leave you in Captain O'Neill's capable hands," said General West as he left the firing range.

"Shall we begin campers?" asked O'Neill as he walked over to the equipment locker.

* * *

A week later as Doctor Jackson was packing the last of his gear for the trip through the Stargate Doctor Langford entered his quarters.

"Catherine, what's up?" he asked

"I just wanted to give you this," she said as she handed him her golden pendant.

"I couldn't," he started to protest.

"Yes you can. My ancestor, my namesake, found this with the Stargate at the dig at Giza; it has passed from mother to daughter for the past two centuries and has always brought us luck, maybe it can do the same for you. Also don't forget to bring it back to me; it's a piece of my family's history," she said kindly, but with a serious edge.

"Thank you Catherine and I will be bringing it back." he said and gave her a warm hug.

Jackson put the pendant on around his neck and went to meet up with the rest of the team assembling outside what was now called the Gate Room. The Special Forces teams that were going with them were all armed to the teeth with PPRs, Plasma Pulse Rifles. Improved versions from what they had during the Dilgar war.

They also wore full Combat Armour, a strength enhancing exoskeleton, meaning they can run faster and further, and carry ten times than what they usually could unassisted. The helmets were standard Earth Force Combat helmets, completely sealed with a detachable re-breather system. A Heads Up Display, HUD, is displayed right over the soldiers eyes with a link to the weapon he is holding at the time, a targeting reticule is shown, meaning you always know where your weapon is pointed, and a small camera, integrated into the targeting sights on the weapon itself, allows for the soldier to just point his weapon around corners and hit the enemy. This is just a small part of the Integrated Battle Management System.

Underneath the Combat Armour the soldier would wear standard BDUs with a skin-suit underneath which automatically adapts to the environment they find themselves in, regulating their body temperature and maintaining the optimum atmospheric pressure against their skin.

The two civilians were issued a different version of Combat Armour that was not as heavily armoured, but they still had the same BDUs and skin suits underneath.

They all waited outside the Gate room for the go ahead from the control room. As they waited Captain O'Neill was making a final inspection of his men. The military personnel seemed comfortable with their gear, standing tall and straight with their weapons held ready. The only one of the military personnel who didn't seem all that comfortable with the Combat Armour was Lieutenant Carter, though that was a given since she had initially trained as a pilot, not an infantrywoman.

"How're you holding up Lieutenant?" O'Neill asked.

"Just peachy sir," she said, she was used to the skin suits, all pilots wore them, but the Power Armour took a little getting used to. "I'll manage."

"Alright, if you have something to say or want to back out of this, now is the time," said Jack, giving his men a way out if any of them were uncertain, but all of the 32 soldiers and two civilians didn't move a muscle, until Doctor Jackson gave a big sneeze, thankful that his helmet was an open faced version and not a fully enclosed helmet that the rest of the team was wearing. He took out a handkerchief and loudly blew his nose, much to the annoyance and disgust of the rest of the team. 'Typical geek,' they all thought.

Jack just shook his head. "Let's move out people, recon team first."

The expedition moved into the Gate room, the Stargate was active and the six FREDs, Field Remote Expeditionary Device, were by the ramp and lined up through the opposite entrance, waiting for a signal to go through. First through the Gate was a six man recon team, upon their all clear, Captain O'Neill looked over to Lieutenant Carter, who held a small remote controller in her hand, with a nod gave her the order for her to send them through. The FRED convoy moved up to the Stargate and disappeared into it.

Next to go through was Captain O'Neill, who slowly, but surely walked up the ramp, getting ever closer. Filled with a feeling of apprehension he poked his weapon into the event horizon of the wormhole, then took the final step through the gate and disappeared, just as quickly as the FRED.

The next to go through was Lieutenant Carter, a little quicker than O'Neill she involuntarily gasped before going through, like just before you drop into a swimming pool.

One by one the rest of the expedition walked through and disappeared, until only one was left to go through, Doctor Daniel Jackson. He stood before the Stargate, mesmerized by the beauty of the light and the water like event horizon. He experimentally moved his hands forward, dipping them into the Stargate and felt a slight pull, but he could still move his arms back out. He smiled in childlike wonder then closed his eyes, stepped through the Stargate and into the ride of his life.

* * *

AN: I made some small edits, credit goes to Dan the Van Man from Spacebattles.


	3. Abydos revised

The Stargate and Babylon 5 franchises are owned by their respective copyright owners, I make no money off of this.

**Stargate Babylon**

**Chapter 2: Abydos**

As Doctor Jackson stepped through the Stargate for one millisecond he could see out the other side of the watery event horizon, then a sense of falling came over him, travelling at extreme velocity along a path, stars going past him faster than he could keep track of, and bright lights, closer than the stars, flew past him. The path continued forward until a bright light finally flashed before his eyes, the next thing he knew he was tumbling down a flight of stone stairs, feeling like he had just been frozen stiff while walking through a blizzard, naked.

He was still woozy when he was roughly shaken back to equilibrium by Lieutenant Commander Kawalsky.

"Jackson, your alright it's over, stay with him Brown," he said to the expedition's medic.

"Yes sir. It's alright Doctor Jackson, just walk it off, it'll wear off in a minute or two." Just as he said that, Lieutenant Carter took off her helmet and puked her guts out in a nearby corner. "And if you feel like you're going to be sick please do it in a corner."

"I'll be alright, I don't think I'm gonna puke any time soon," said Daniel as he took in his surroundings, bathed in the light from the active Stargate. The members of the advance team were scanning the Gate room, while a team member had taken over for Carter and was manoeuvring the FREDs clear of the Stargate steps. The walls were almost completely barren, with just some decorative trim here and there, but there were no writings, pictographs, or anything like the cartouche found on Earth.

After she puked her guts out, Carter quickly pulled on a straw connected to a small water cantina built into her combat armour and sucked in a good mouthful of water and promptly spat it out to get the taste out of her mouth. "I really shouldn't have had that big lunch," she said to herself, quietly, remembering the full English breakfast she'd had that morning. She took several deep breaths and took another drink of water. She quickly noticed the pedestal in the room and got a closer look at it, and reached out to touch it, marvelling at the size of the thing.

"Amazing, this is what was missing from the original dig at Giza," she said as she ran her hands over the control pedestal and its raised buttons. "This is how they controlled it. It took us over two years and the most powerful supercomputer available to Earth Force to MacGuyver a system like this," she said as the rest of the expedition within earshot heard the giddiness in the young scientist's voice. "I mean, look how small it is..."

_"Stargate expedition do you read us?"_ said General West over the expedition's radio channel.

"Yes sir, we read you five by five General," replied O'Neill.

_"Good, we'll contact you in six hours, after that every twenty four hours on this frequency to receive reports from you. We'll be shutting down the Stargate in a moment so all I'll say is god's speed."_

Then the gate shut down, cloaking everything in darkness, "Lights" ordered O'Neill turning on his flashlight built into his helmet, the troops followed suit giving off plenty of light to see.

"Alright, let's spread out, staggered advance, move," O'Neill ordered.

The expedition members walked softly out of the alien Gate room and into the only one passage way to follow, exploring the structure they were in.

They thoroughly reconnoitred the structure they were in, moving swiftly from chamber to chamber, but found nothing, just as the probe had shown. They did find a circular hatch on the ceiling just outside the alien gate room, but it gave off no energy readings so they kept on going, and watched their step for possible booby traps.

"Let's take a look outside, Ferretti on point," the Captain ordered. Lieutenant Ferretti's squad of Recon GROPOs moved forward, sweeping the area for any traps. They soon found themselves outside in the blistering heat of the planet's sun, the heat reflecting off the sandy dunes for miles around them. The first thing they saw outside were two tall spires at the other end of bowl shaped area around a boxlike structure they were standing in with a set of stone steps going down into the bowl. Ferretti and his squad swept the area and found not a soul in sight.

"Clear sir," he called over the radio.

"Alright, Doctor Jackson, Ambassador Sheridan, Kawalsky, Carter, you're with me, the rest of you continue searching the structure, I want to take a look outside."

The five of them stepped out of the building and began walking down the long stone steps, taking in the sights, or rather the lack thereof, just a pair of tall stone spires with pointed pyramidal tops and sand dunes, lots and lots of sand dunes. They continued up the slope of the bowl and turned around, seeing the entire structure where the Stargate was housed, a pyramid bigger than the Great Pyramids of Giza, its stone surface seemed to glisten in the sun, as if it was just recently built and not ravaged by time.

All five of them experienced their jaws dropping in astonishment at what they were seeing, an Ancient Egyptian style pyramid on an alien planet, hundreds of light years away from Earth, was the last thing any of them expected to see, except perhaps Doctor Jackson.

"I was right," said Doctor Jackson under his breath in silent triumph.

"Kawalsky, get that Eagle Eye ready for takeoff, I want that thing in the air inside of ten minutes and not a minute later. Carter, once it's up I want you to select the best spot in the area to drop the Tachyon Beacon."

"Yes sir. Aye sir," the two chorused and went to work putting together the UAV.

It had a two meter wing span and was three meters long, a simple turboprop at the rear with two downward slanted rear tails. In the nose and wing tips were placed various cameras and sensors, though the heat sensors would be almost useless in this environment, except perhaps at night. At its core was a hydrogen fuel cell, the largest they could fit into the UAV, and had enough fuel for a week's worth of flight time.

The Eagle Eye lifted off vertically on two smaller fan jets located beneath the wing roots, kicking up dust as it flew straight up, then its turboprop kicked in, sending it high into the air. Once it reached altitude it settled into a holding pattern and ran a self diagnostic, its progress monitored by Lieutenant Carter on a small combat laptop.

"The Eagle Eye is now at sixty-two hundred meters and in a holding pattern over the area," she reported.

"Good, begin scanning."

The Lieutenant nodded and got to work, setting the UAV on circular search pattern, the circle widening as it flew, sending invisible sensor beams out and scanning the region in the highest possible detail. As Lieutenant Carter searched for a good place to set up the Tachyon Beacon she made a discovery.

"Sir, you've got to take a look at this, Doctor Jackson, Ambassador, you too," she said as she relayed the images she got from the Eagle Eye's cameras to their HUD.

"An opencast mine being worked on by humans?" questioned Sheridan.

"And using pretty archaic tools by the looks of it," Doctor Jackson commented as he watched the locals labour.

"Can you tell what they are mining?" Captain O'Neill asked.

"They seem to be mining Q50, the Stargate element."

"Any sign of a refining facility?"

"No sir, in fact I'm not detecting any known form of advanced technology on this planet, Earth based or otherwise. The locals seem to be roughly the same level of development as the Ancient Egyptians were over three thousand years ago, maybe even more primitive."

"They could have been brought through the Stargate from Earth before it was buried, these could be their descendants," Daniel hypothesized.

"Possibly," replied Carter.

"Given enough time to study their language I should be able to speak with them fluently, as if I was a native speaker, if they speak anything like Ancient Egyptian," he said confidently.

"Alright, Carter, continue to look for a good spot to plant the beacon, after that set the Eagle Eye to monitor the locals, make sure that they don't get too close."

"Yes sir."

Another half hour of searching the Eagle Eye found the perfect spot, a mountain range just thirty five kilometres away.

"Sir, I suggest that we set up the beacon here, at the top of this mountain, it has free line of sight in almost every direction."

"Alright, drop it there and set the Eagle Eye to recon mode."

She nodded then commanded the Eagle Eye to drop its payload, a small bomb bay door underneath the fuselage opened and a meter long shaft dropped from it, its tipped end burrowing itself deeply into the side of the mountain. An antennae array popped out of its rear and began transmitting a Tachyon signal into Hyperspace.

"Beacon successfully deployed and transmitting," Carter reported then set the Eagle Eye to recon mode.

"Find anywhere with better cover?" Captain O'Neill asked.

"Yes sir. The area around the mountain where we planted the beacon seems very rocky which would give us better cover than out here in the open."

"Then that's where we'll go. Everyone saddle up, we've got a long march ahead of us. Ferretti, you and your squad stay here in the pyramid, keep an eye on the gate and to act as a relay between us and transmissions from Earth. Kawalsky, you will take the rest of the expedition and set up base camp, while Doctor Jackson and I will head out and take a closer look at the locals mining operation, and see if we can get some audio recordings so the we can study their language," O'Neill ordered.

"Aye sir," chorused the two officers.

Everyone got their gear on, the soldiers carrying both their essentials and weapons on and in their huge over sized back packs, while the FRED carried the stuff too heavy or too big to be carried by one person, while Ferretti and his squad of six men stayed behind in the pyramid and set up a small base camp inside the main entrance, right next to where the probe was parked.

They trekked across the desert for what seemed like days instead of hours, especially for the two civilians and Lieutenant Carter, the sun beating down upon them. Lucky for them that their skin suits regulated their body temperatures, making sure that they stayed cool the entire time and weren't going to suffer from heatstroke. An hour into the trek across the desert Doctor Jackson and Captain O'Neill broke off from the main group and headed for the opencast mine, leaving most of their personal packs on the FRED convoy as they made their way towards the camp site.

The two of them set off across the dunes at a fast pace, one that Doctor Jackson would have had trouble with keeping up if he were not wearing combat armour that did most of the work for him, but it still left him winded as they reached the mine a couple of hours later. They lay down on their bellies and Doctor Jackson extended a small parabolic microphone from his pack and aimed it at the people, being very careful not to be seen. He listened to the idle conversation of the miners, trying to decipher their language, though he was having a little difficulty.

"It could take a while before I am able to speak their language. It would go a lot faster if I could speak to them; try to ask them to teach me their language."

"Doctor Jackson our orders are to observe and report back only, not initiate contact. I'm sorry, but for now we'll just have to sit quiet and stay out of sight," said O'Neill.

Doctor Jackson merely nodded his head, disappointed that he would not be able to directly talk with a society of humans that could easily have walked out of ancient Egypt. He spotted through his binoculars a young woman among the miners, handing out water to the other miners. She was truly a breathtaking sight, long black curly hair, a beautiful face with dark eyes with depths he could just sink straight into. Captain O'Neill watched the spellbound Doctor then followed his gaze, catching sight of the young woman, and smiled. The young man certainly had taste.

"Eyes on the job, Doctor," he said smirking. This shook Daniel from his silent appreciation of the lady in his sights, and lost her in the sea of people, and he didn't even manage to record any of her speech, the parabolic microphone being pointed at the wrong direction at the time.

"Laugh it up Captain," he grumbled.

They continued to watch the mine, not quite sure how the inhabitants didn't suffer more from the heat, though they seem to work in almost never ending shifts. As night fell the tired and dirty workers began heading back to their city, the coolness of the night giving much needed relief to them. The two Earthers watched them leave, not making a single move or sound, trying to go unnoticed. As the last of the workers left they crawled on their bellies backwards until the mine was out of sight, then started walking towards their camp. Unbeknownst to them they were being followed.

The other members of the Stargate expedition had just finished setting up their camp when O'Neill and Jackson entered camp, a grouping of roughly forty tents in all, designed to be able to shrug off the worst that nature could throw at them, they were all a tan colour to blend in with the surrounding environment, Jackson noticed several soldiers were scrambling to get sets of protective camouflage tarpaulin over the FREDs. As O'Neill and his companion neared the main tent Lieutenants Carter and Kawalsky came up to them.

"How's it going campers?" O'Neill asked lightly.

"Sir, there's a sandstorm approaching, and by the looks of it a pretty bad one" reported Carter.

"Do we need to move to better shelter?" O'Neill queried.

"No sir, the tents can handle it, and the surrounding rock formation has given us some useful cover. It will also miss the Pyramid, but may compromise our communications with them. I passed our location and status to Ferretti's team with the Commanders permission."

"Good, has the camp been properly secured Kawalsky?"

"Yes sir, perimeter sensors are online and the sentry guns are in place."

"I didn't see any sentry guns on the way in," said Doctor Jackson, feeling a little bit nervous about such weaponry and not being able to see them.

"You wouldn't," Carter said as she pressed a few buttons on a keypad on her left forearm. A second later a PPG sentry gun popped out of the sand on a telescopic pole and swivelled around, its laser designator lit up a large boulder nearby.

"Now you see it," she keyed her keypad again. "Now you don't." It quickly retracted back into the sand, leaving no hint that it was ever there.

"Are those really necessary?" Doctor Jackson asked worriedly.

"Yes they really are necessary, we don't know what dangers there could be on this planet and it would be a shame if someone came in the middle of the night and slit our throats," retorted Kawalsky as he made a slashing gesture and sound across his neck, smiling at the look upon the civilian's face.

"I think I'll just head to my tent and listen to my recordings," he said, making a beeline for his tent.

"Nice way to scare him, you two," Captain O'Neill mock admonished.

"I just wanted to show off some of our toys, sir," she replied cutely. Kawalsky just grinned.

"Well make sure those things are programmed properly, I don't want to wake up with a hole in my chest from those things."

"Don't worry sir, I've made sure they recognize our IFFs, and they should hold out against the sand storm" said Carter.

They turned to head to the main tent when they saw a wall of sand approaching them on the horizon, and coming in much faster than they believed possible.

"Everyone, get in the tents, NOW!" bellowed O'Neill over the comlink.

Everyone scrambled inside, just seconds before the storm hit, buffeting the tents with both heavy wind and sand.

As the storm raged a dark and menacing creature watched over the camp, forced to dig in and wait out the storm. It had spotted these new humans when they had been setting up camp, but the creature was nocturnal by nature, so it didn't have the energy to go after them, and it had been so long since it had its last meal, almost six months. Its master had placed it under the care of one of its allies who had forbidden it from killing the humans other than enough to keep it alive and to terrify the slaves, which the creature found distasteful. There was so much food for the taking that if it were capable it would be drooling, and it was so happy that it had found these tasty little morsels before it went mad. Now it would be able to eat to its heart's content without having to fear punishment, but for now it would lay low, quietly studying its future prey.

* * *

In one of the tents the young archaeologist and the diplomat shared a tent and looked over what Doctor Jackson had recorded both visual and audio, thanks to the cameras built into their helmets.

"Fascinating isn't it, to find such an ancient culture so far away from Earth," said Doctor Jackson as the two watched the footage on a holographic monitor.

"Yes, and it will be quite a challenge," said David Sheridan. "I've met a dozen different races in my time, negotiated half a dozen different treaties, but this will certainly be a challenge."

"Why would this be a challenge?" Doctor Jackson asked. "They're human, and even with the language barrier, wouldn't that make them easier to read than an alien race?"

"All the other races I've negotiated with have been in regular contact with others, and by the time it reaches my level both sides have exchanged protocols. This is the closest I've had to a true First-Contact situation in years, where the wrong gesture or miscommunication can insult the other side or provoke hostilities. With fellow humans we can better read their emotional mood through micro-expressions, but politics teaches one to conceal their true thoughts beyond a mask. I brought some cards with me to pass the time, we'll start up a poker game in the mess tent with the others and I'll show you how to read people. I've found it's the best practice possible, and it helps to pass the time between meetings. Just be careful of people like Carter, who are smart enough to count cards, and O'Neill who has the Devil's Luck, I still owe him 5 credits from last time," Sheridan smiled.

* * *

The storm lasted for nearly twenty four hours, thankfully everyone had a full supply of water and MREs in their packs, enough to last for a week if they had to. Captain O'Neill made an inspection of the camp after the storm and found it to be a mess. The sands had blown in heavily during the storm, half burying the tents and gumming up the works on the FREDs, making it impossible until the sand was cleared from the machinery for them to move anywhere.

Radio chat with Ferretti confirmed that Earth had checked in as scheduled and no new orders were received. The report of an observed probable ancient human population raised quite a few eye-brows, but the General decided to wait for O'Neill's next check-in for more details before making a decision.

Luckily the Sentry guns were left relatively unscathed and a quick test of their telescopic poles and a quick burst of fire from each one confirmed them ready for action. The Captain spotted Lieutenant Carter working on the small laptop that controlled the Eagle Eye and walked over to her.

"Lieutenant, how did the Eagle Eye fare in the storm?" he asked.

"It didn't do too badly sir, I set it on a course that would take it over the sand storm so it escaped the worst of it," she answered.

"Good, you got it back to keeping an eye on the locals?"

"Yes sir, standard high altitude observation pattern."

"Very good, carry on Lieutenant."

The day was hot and long, and for the most part boring as all they did for most of the day was continue watching the locals mine and Doctor Jackson listened to their speech, trying to get a read on their language. O'Neill though had this nagging feeling that they were being watched all day, but there was nothing there, and not even when he checked the camp's perimeter scanners did he feel secure, he just couldn't shake that nagging feeling he had between his shoulder blades. Eighteen hours later, when the sun set on Abydos, everyone was back in their tents, except for two night guards to keep an eye on the perimeter, both in full armour with the internal heaters on, as the temperature had dropped to 5 degrees Celsius. Their suits kept their bodies warm, but the cold still seemed to seep into their gloves.

"I thought deserts were supposed to be warm all the time," said the first guard.

The second one, an Arab, said to him, "You would think so, but in the Sahara back on Earth the temperature drops even lower. The ground radiates the heat back up into the air as the sun sets, rapidly cooling as it rises. The thing to do is to dress warmly and hunker down."

They remained silent after that, waiting for their relief, until then they watched the surrounding area. It was a very clear and starry night, not a single cloud was in the sky, three full moons were out and they could even see a nebula in the night sky, unlike anything they had seen on Earth or any of her colonies.

As the two of them watched the night sky, the creature closed in on the camp. Stalking silently and stealthily and leaving no marks in the sand as it closed in until it was right on top of them, then without a sound it swiped the first guard with its clawed hand and ripped out his organs with barely a sound, just a thump alerted the second that something was wrong and he screamed as he sounded the alarm and activated the four sentry guns as he saw the creature. The only way you could describe it was that it had come straight from hell, its blacker than black skin, its long dark horns and its razor sharp teeth set in a powerful looking jaw was the most terrifying thing he had ever seen.

"All merciful Allah," he exclaimed, then opened fire with his rifle on full auto, riddling the creature with painfully hot plasma, the sentry guns followed suit, and it retreated so quickly that the guard could barely keep up with it. Everyone heard the weapons fire and bolted out of their tents, weapons at the ready, and O'Neill saw the tail end of what he would later term as a 'Demon.'

"Can somebody please tell me what the hell that was?" the Captain asked angrily.

"Sir, that creature killed Petty Officer Davenport without a sound sir, the only reason I am alive right now sir was that I heard him hit the ground and saw that demon just in time," said a clearly hysterical Petty Officer.

"Sir, there's something odd here," said Kawalsky as he examined the ground in the direction of where the creature fled. "There are no tracks in the sand"

"How the hell is that possible, we all saw it Kawalsky," said O'Neill.

"Sir, I'm only telling you what I see here, and I don't see any tracks."

That was a chilling thought, a creature that was almost completely silent when it kills and leaves no footprints in sand?

"Alright, I want a rotating watch of four men guarding the camp in four hour shifts no one is to be alone on this planet. In the morning we will begin to hunt down this creature and kill it."

"Captain, if I may, why don't we talk to the locals, I've managed to decipher their language well enough to talk to them a little, maybe we could get some information on the creature from them?" Doctor Jackson asked.

The Captain though it over. "Alright Doctor, you, Sheridan, and I will tomorrow go have a little chat with the locals, assuming I get approval from Earth to make contact ahead of schedule. Doctor you will send the language files already recorded back to Earth for analysis and further translation when they next dial in."

"Thank you Captain," said Doctor Jackson as he walked back to his tent with a near bounce in his steps.

Captain O'Neill could only shake his head at the Doctor's giddiness and got a proper watch set up then went back to bed, though sleep would not come easily to the battle tested Special Ops man, for the image of that creature was still on his mind.


	4. Demon Hunting revised

The Stargate and Babylon 5 franchises are owned by their respective copyright owners, I make no money off of this.

**Stargate Babylon**

**Chapter 3: Demon Hunting.**

The freezing cold of night of Abydos finally gave way to the rising sun, quickly warming the desert up from its cold slumber. Everyone had been up since before dawn, since the day was thirty six hours long, and had donned both their skin suits and BDUs as they moved around the camp. Two hours before dawn the Stargate had activated again and Captain O'Neill made his report, detailing everything that had happened in the last day or so. The news of the death of the Petty Officer had truly saddened the General, though he didn't show it. He was also pissed about it and had given the Captain permission to open contact with the locals and to take down the creature if possible. He also sent two man-portable PPCs through on another FRED which Ferretti and his squad drove to base camp, leaving behind the initial probe sent through to act as a relay for any transmissions Earth sent though the Stargate.

At base camp the two PPCs were given to two of the heavy weapons specialists they had on this mission, one on each of the combat squads.

"Kawalsky, Ferretti, you two will take your squads and start searching the surrounding area. Stay in constant radio contact with the base camp." The two men nodded and moved out with their six man squads. "Carter you'll be in charge back here at the camp and help out with the mineral surveys," said O'Neill.

"Aye sir," Carter responded, slightly disappointed that she wouldn't be going along on the First Contact, something that she had wanted to do at least once in her career and was one of the reasons she had joined Earth Force.

Seeing the look upon her face Captain O'Neill said; "Don't worry Lieutenant, it's a big galaxy out there, your chance will come soon enough." Her face brightened at his reassurance then she got on her small laptop, checking up on the Eagle Eye.

"Doctor Jackson and the ambassador will come along with me and another four SFs to make contact with the locals. I don't have to remind you to be on your best behaviour now, do I?" he asked the last in a teasing manner.

"No sir," chorused the four SFs.

"Good, now let's mount up, we've got a long walk ahead of us," said Jack.

Kawalsky and Ferretti took their squads and headed out into the mountains, while Captain O'Neill, Jackson, Sheridan and the four SFs began the long trek towards the mine they had found the previous day. Lieutenant Carter brought the Eagle Eye back down to modify it with a ground penetrating sensor package to take a look inside the surrounding mountains for likely hiding places where the creature could be, while some of the other expedition members began to take down the ground penetrating sensors they had used in the days they had been on this planet to conduct their mineral survey.

The trek to the mines was a long and hot one, with the sun beating down on them; they were getting pretty hot under their collars, but they kept going.

As they made their way to the mine a small group of teenagers, who had been collecting a recently escaped and recaptured beast of burden, known to the locals as a mastadge, were bringing it back to the mine, spotted the group of seven men trekking in a straight line for their god's mines. One of them quickly mounted the mastadge and took off for mines at high speed, kicking up a good deal of dust as it ran across the desert, while the rest decided to shadow the strangers.

One of the young SFs, Petty officer Michel Lapin, saw a large line of sand getting thrown up in the distance. "Captain, I just saw something," he said as he trained his eyes on the sand cloud that was being kicked up and noticed its course. "I'd say the locals have seen us, I can see them sticking their heads up just above the sand dune to our course's three o'clock," the young SF continued. "Roughly two clicks away."

"Well, looks like they are going to be expecting us after all," Doctor Jackson commented.

Captain O'Neill sighed in resignation, though hopefully Doctor Jackson and the linguistics team back home had managed to get at least a basic understanding for the local language. "Let's keep moving," he ordered, and the party continued on to the mine.

Just as Captain O'Neill's group crested the sand dune that overlooked the opencast mine they paused and allowed the locals to see them before they walked in. A lookout saw them standing atop of the sand dune and called out and drew attention to himself and pointed them out to his people.

"They've seen us," said Ambassador Sheridan.

"Well then, let's go introduce ourselves," replied O'Neill, and they started down into the mine, sliding along the loose sand as they went. A lot of the locals looked at them in slight awe as they looked very much alien to them, having never seen people even remotely like them before. They were also a little scared, believing them to be sent by the gods.

Doctor Jackson noticed this and took a look at his party and saw what the problem could be. With the exception of himself and the ambassador all of them had a fully enclosed combat helmet, with a single slit across the eyes that doubled as an opening for the multiple sensors that were built in, the face covered by a featureless mask.

"I suggest you take off your combat helmets, I think you're scaring them," said Doctor Jackson.

Captain O'Neill thought it over a little and took a look at the locals faces and then at his SFs, and nodded his head at his men. They all took off their helmets one at a time, Jack first, then the rest followed suit, showing that they were human, the same as the locals. The locals were surprised to find that they were completely human.

A large mastadge carrying a small tent on its back approached them, being led forward by a young teen who was talking animatedly to the person inside. As the local creature came to a stop before them the tent on top of it opened revealing a middle aged man with a grey beard, who looked upon the expedition with curious and cautious eyes.

He climbed off his mount and approached the Earthers and bowed to them, hand to heart and introduced himself and welcomed them, though the translator wasn't exactly accurate. Only Doctor Jackson somewhat understood his speech.

"He's offering us greetings on behalf of the people of Abydos. He says his name is Kasuf, welcomes us and congratulates us on surviving the 'Evil Spirit of the Gods?" Daniel translated, though not entirely sure what Kasuf was talking about.

"Tell him we thank him and we offer greetings from Earth," said Ambassador Sheridan as he looked at Kasuf's face, which was bowed down at the moment along with everyone else in the mine.

"Jackson, why are they bowing down before us?" O'Neill asked.

"They think we're gods," Daniel answered.

"For crying out loud," Jack muttered under his breath. "Tell them that they don't have to bow down to us, we're not gods."

Daniel translated for him and uneasily Kasuf and his people rose up to their full height, then Kasuf clapped his hands and called out to his people. A moment later a line of women came forth, bearing cups of water for them. They all accepted the gift of water, realizing that water is a very precious commodity in the desert and to refuse such a gift from them could be construed as an insult.

Daniel recognized almost immediately the young woman before him as the one he had spied through his binoculars on the first day the expedition arrived on Abydos.

"What's your name?"

"Sha're," she answered, and placed her hand on her heart and turned her eyes down upon the ground.

"Ask Kasuf if he knows more about the creature that attacked us last night," Captain O'Neill ordered, he recognized the girl from the first time that he and Doctor Jackson had observed the mines and knew that the young man might do something stupid with such a beauty in front of him.

Doctor Jackson translated for the Captain again and Kasuf told what he knew. That it was a creature of the night and that it had a taste for human flesh, demanding a sacrifice of at least four people per year to appease the beast, lest if it went on a rampage and started killing everyone. Many attempts in the past had failed to kill the creature and they paid dearly for it every time, and those hunters that tried never came back. It was even said that the creature was impossible to kill.

Daniel asked in their native tongue if the creature was originally of this world.

"The 'Evil Spirit' was put on this world at the same time as we were created by our god Ra," Kasuf answered.

"Ask them if they know where it sleeps or dwells when it's not hunting humans," O'Neill asked which Doctor Jackson translated for Kasuf.

Kasuf gestured to a young man, Skaara, and his friends who were standing close by, watching the newcomers with a curious eye. "They know where the demon sleeps, they once followed it to its dwelling when one of their friends was taken," Kasuf answered.

"I can show you where it sleeps, it only comes out at night, it has no love for the light from the Eye of Ra," Skaara said pointing to the sun.

"It seems that the creature that attacked us last night has no love of sun light and this boy seems to know where it sleeps during the day," Doctor Jackson explained.

"Alright Doctor, have you been able to get the translation program properly set up for us?" O'Neill asked.

"Yes, but it's still very rough, it may not translate properly in some places and programming isn't exactly my strong suite..."

"Carter helped you with the programming, didn't she?"

"Yes," Jackson said uncertainly.

"Then it should be alright, we don't need to have long conversations, just enough to roughly understand each other."

Doctor Jackson nodded in defeat.

"What was the kid's name again?"

"Skaara," Doctor Jackson answered.

"Alright, then Skaara, Brown, Lapin and I will meet up with Kawalsky and Ferretti's squads and head for this creature's home, see if we can take it out."

"How are you going to take it out, it didn't seem to be bothered that much by our PPG fire," Doctor Jackson asked.

"We stung it a little, and when the turrets started shooting at it, it ran away, and as you know one bee sting may be an annoyance, but a hundred can kill you, plus we also got a couple of heavy weapons from Earth the last time they opened the gate. If we can catch it in its cave we'll have it cornered and hopefully dead soon after."

Doctor Jackson nodded in reluctance and asked Kasuf if Skaara would be willing to show O'Neill and his men where the demon sleeps. Before Kasuf could answer Skaara spoke up.

"I would be honoured to accompany you and show where the demon sleeps," said Skaara with no fear in his voice. Daniel nodded sadly at that and translated for O'Neill.

"Good, show us the way kid," said O'Neill, gesturing for Skaara to join him.

"Doctor Jackson, Ambassador, stay with the locals. Dieter and Gunderson, stay here with Sheridan and Jackson, make sure they don't get into too much trouble," said O'Neill, the two SFs stuck with the diplomat and archaeologist looked about to protest when O'Neill flashed them a steady commanding look which cowed them both.

"I know you two want to avenge your friend, but I need you two to look after Doctor Jackson and the ambassador."

The two nodded in understanding, they definitely didn't like it, but they could understand why they were being left behind.

"Make sure to stay in regular radio contact so we know you are alive," said the ambassador.

"Will do Ambassador," he answered. O'Neill motioned for Skaara to lead the way and he and Brown put their combat helmets back on, the heat was beginning to get to them, and was most grateful for the temperature control systems in his suit and helmet.

Skaara led them across the desert towards the mountains, the same mountains that just happened to overlook their base-camp. They moved into the mountains where they met up with Kawalsky and Ferretti's squads, almost two thirds of the expedition. They continued to follow Skaara further up the mountains and soon came upon a cave halfway up, in the shadow of the tall mountain and surrounded by black jagged rocks.

Captain O'Neill began transmitting on the general comm. channel so everyone could hear him. "Okay everyone, Skaara has led us to a cave, be advised we may lose contact once we get deep inside, Carter, has the Eagle Eye gotten us a picture of what's inside this mountain?

"_Yes sir, I've got a live feed from the Eagle Eye from its ground penetrating sensors, looks like a long tunnel, possibly an ancient lava tube that opens up into a rather large chamber, could be where this creature makes its home,"_ she responded.

"Roger that, Doctor Jackson, have you managed to get any more useful intel from the locals on this thing?"

_"I've been talking at length with the locals and I think I might have found another weakness that you might be able to exploit." _The Doctor paused.

"Well, let's hear it," said O'Neill annoyed.

_"One of the kids said that he saw it outside its dwelling at dawn when it was returning. Before it could get back inside it was exposed to direct sunlight and the creature seemed to be in pain and blisters were starting to form. Captain this creature has absolutely no love of sunlight and if you can get it out in the open in the middle of the day direct sunlight may be enough to kill it."_

"So it doesn't like the sun too much," said Jack. "Hasn't it ever heard of sun-block?"

Daniel ignored the last comment. _"Captain this thing feeds on humans and usually takes three or more people a year. The locals usually sacrifice their eldest to appease the beast so the others may live, but this thing craves fresh meat."_

"Oi," Jack groaned. "Well, if we were ever going to colonize this planet we would have to get rid of this thing anyway, and the mineralogical survey suggests that this world is loaded with Q50 and Q49 deposits, and Q49 as you know when refined becomes Q40, meaning we would have a healthy source of income for these people."

_"I know, just be careful, we don't want what happened to Davenport happen to you,"_ said Doctor Jackson, remembering the dead petty officer, who was little more than skin and bones and all of his internal organs had been seemingly ripped out of him without a single entry or exit wound.

"We'll contact you after we've taken care of this thing, Carter, you on?"

_"Yes sir."_

"I want you and your team to get ready for an attack, since base camp is so close you'll most likely be its first target, and if we fail to take this thing out it'll be up to the rest of you to take it down," said O'Neill.

_"Aye sir!"_ said Carter strongly, though inside she felt a little fearful that they wouldn't come back, she definitely didn't want to face that creature after seeing what it did the last time.

Captain O'Neill then gestured for Skaara to remain outside, and Skaara seemed to agree, but O'Neill saw in the young man's eyes that he would follow them in.

"Brown, Lapin, stay behind and cover the exit, if that thing comes screaming out into the hot sun I want you to try and hold it out in the open, let the sun do the work just keep it pinned down until its dead, and keep an eye on the kid," he said in afterthought.

"Aye sir," the two chorused and took up positions on either side of the entrance while O'Neill along with Kawalsky and Ferretti's squads went into the cave. As soon as they got deeper into the cave and natural sunlight began to diminish they switched to Infrared night vision, giving them a better view of the cave than they would have had with torches.

As quietly as possible they ventured into the cave, though it was more of a long tunnel, oval in shape and seemingly smooth walls, too smooth to be just a lava tube, definitely not a natural formation, someone had to have dug this place.

Over the radio Kawalsky asked, "Sir, why don't we just collapse the entrance to the cave, then the thing would be trapped in here with no way out?"

"Because there may be an emergency exit that the Eagle Eye might not have picked up and this thing could very well dig itself out before it dies, now cut the chatter," said O'Neill as they approached a large chamber up ahead.

The chamber itself was a huge oval shaped sphere with a hole in the centre of the floor, a well? There was absolutely no natural illumination, the only thing that prevented them from bumping into each other was their night-vision optics built into their helmets. Right next to the hole was the creature in all its ugly glory, dozing softly yet everyone was getting increasingly nervous, but they clamped down on their fear and controlled it, not letting it control them. As they entered the chamber Jack noticed something on the ground and silently wished he hadn't looked.

Kawalsky looked down as he heard the first crunch and clamped his eyes shut as he tried to mentally erase what he just saw. He expected to see such things, but expecting and actually seeing were totally different. Skeletons, human skeletons, were scattered on the ground like so much refuse, the evidence of the creature's former meals. All seventeen of them stepped lightly into the chamber, careful not to step on any of the bones, but their stealth couldn't last forever. A young SF stepped on a rib and it cracked loudly like a gunshot.

The creature's eyes shot open and locked onto the source of the noise, instantly picking out the warm body of the young SF and lunged for him, killing him instantly with a swipe of its sharp talons, removing all of his internal organs and meat in an instant, not even giving him a chance to scream.

"Open fire," Captain O'Neill yelled and all of them opened up with their rifles and the two heavy PPCs, bathing it in red hot plasma, making it recoil back from the pain, starting off as something akin to a bee sting then grew to unimaginable pain as the heat poured on and the plasma impacted, making it stagger and fall to its knees. The SFs just kept pouring on the fire, making it pay for all the people it had killed, until it started to glow, white lines crisscrossed its body as it began to succumb to the fire then exploded, releasing the pent up energy stored within it in the form of a small pressure wave which knocked everybody on their asses. At the entrance to the cave the high pressure air wave came blasting out knocking Skaara flat on his back as he stood in front of the entrance.

In the cave everyone was picking themselves up, feeling like they had just been run over by a twenty ton truck.

"Is everyone alright?" Captain O'Neill asked, still trying to shake off his disorientation from being thrown up against the wall.

One by one everyone got up shakily back on their feet, between the frightening nature of the creature and the pressure wave created when it died, they were still deeply rattled. As they got on their feet they each sounded off, no one else had been killed, their helmets and armour protecting them from the pressure wave and subsequent crash into the wall.

"Collect his gear, we'll bring him back for a proper burial on Earth," said O'Neill. They quickly gathered up the unfortunate SFs body and equipment and headed out of the cave, the body in a sealed body bag so scavengers wouldn't smell it and get an easy meal. As they came out of the cave their mood was subdued, they had a second man dead on this mission and they truly hoped that their deaths were worth it.

They trudged back towards their camp and put the body onto one of the FREDs, while everyone else began to lend a hand in taking down the tents. Captain O'Neill called together his two senior officers, Commanders Kawalsky and Ferretti, and the officer in charge of the science team, Lieutenant Carter with Doctor Jackson and Ambassador Sheridan joining in over the radio. Off to the side was Skaara trying to listen in, but because he couldn't understand their language he couldn't hope to know what they were saying.

"Ok, now that we have revealed ourselves to the locals and taken care of their demon for them, what now?" Jack O'Neill asked. "We can't simply isolate ourselves from them."

"Sir I think we should stop taking down camp and stay put until Doctor Jackson can get the Stargate working again," said Kawalsky. "We only just met these people and even though they are fellow humans they have been removed from our home world for over four thousand years, and if you haven't noticed they greatly outnumber us, and at least here we have a defensible position."

_"I disagree, they were very friendly towards us and your men, there's just a little bit of a language barrier which we'll be able to overcome with time, learning and translators, besides Kasuf has invited us to join them in a victory celebration in our honour"_ Sheridan rebutted over the radio.

_"Besides this is a great opportunity to study an ancient culture that hasn't been around for centuries,"_ said Doctor Jackson who was almost giddy at the thought.

"I agree sir," said Carter. "I don't know about the rest of you, but I don't want to go through another sandstorm like we had the first day we came here and the FREDs got a lot of sand in their gears which the rest of us spent a lot of time cleaning out all day afterwards."

"I think we've scored enough good will with these people to trust them, however we will still maintain a base camp out here, just in case we need a fallback position," he let the last part hang in the air for a second so everyone understood. "Ambassador, tell Kasuf that a small party including myself will be coming over to join in the festivities," he said smiling at his senior officers, after what they had been through they needed some good R&R.

_"Very good Captain,"_ said Sheridan just before he turned off his radio while O'Neill had a quick chat with the young Abydonian. Skaara got very excited and was soon off like a shot, heading straight towards his village at a fast pace.

"Carter, Kawalsky, mind joining me for this shindig?" the Captain asked, though his tone brokered no argument from his subordinates.

"We'll be there sir," said Kawalsky.

"And Kawalsky have your squad come with us, I'm sure they'll appreciate some fine local cuisine," said Captain O'Neill in mock seriousness, knowing that most of them would likely stick to their instant heat MREs.

"Aye sir," responded Kawalsky and started to get his squad together.

"Ferretti, you're in charge back here until we return." Ferretti merely nodded, though the captain could tell that the lieutenant was disappointed in not being able to join in the festivities that the locals were now going to throw them. "Don't look so sad Ferretti; there'll be other parties, though the next one will probably be a state dinner in Earth Dome." This one caused Ferretti and just about everyone within earshot to shudder in terror at the thought of all those predatory vultures that called themselves politicians rubbing shoulders with them.

Ten minutes later O'Neill, Carter, Kawalsky and his combat squad of six men moved out from camp in a slightly less melancholy mood, looking forward to hopefully a scrumptious home-cooked meal that the Abydonians were preparing for them and perhaps a local show.


	5. Return of the Gods revised

Hello my fellow readers, I've been working on and off on this little project for the last year, mostly just an odd tweek here, a little added dialogue. Review and critique pls.

The Stargate and Babylon 5 franchises are owned by their respective copyright owners, I make no money off of this.

**Stargate Babylon**

**Chapter 4: Return of the Gods.**

The Earth Alliance explorers counted themselves lucky that it was late in the day when they started their trek across the desert to the local town, following directions from the maps generated by multiple passes from the UAV. The air was rapidly cooling as day began to turn into night again as they approached the town, though trouble wasn't far behind. At the head of the group Captain O'Neill and Lieutenant Carter were leading the way, while Carter kept an eye on her HUD that displayed information from the UAV Golden Eye.

"Sir I suggest we pick up the pace a little, there's another sandstorm brewing, and you know how nasty those can get," she said as she looked at her commanding officers form, secretly admiring his athletic build, wishing that she could see his rugged roguish features, though she quickly squashed those thoughts, he was her commanding officer, not a potential bed-mate.

Jack merely nodded at that, remembering the harsh environment training he had taken both on Earth and Mars, the sandstorms being amongst the worst experiences he had ever had.

"Everyone double time it we've got another sandstorm coming and I have no intention of getting caught by one out in the open," he called out over the expedition's general radio channel and they all doubled the pace. They were all glad for their combat armour's leg braces that allowed them to run faster and with heavier loads than would be possible without them. Carter kept an eye on the sandstorm's progress as they went, keeping her Captain updated on the storm's progress. At long last the town was in sight.

"Sir we've got to move," she yelled as the wind started to seriously pick up and sand started getting tossed up into the air around them, making it difficult to move.

"Let's go," Jack called out and everyone began running as if the devil himself was licking at their heels, trying to beat the storm to the town. They all ran at full tilt, reaching the town's gates with moments to spare, the last person cleared the gates right behind them and the gates got sealed by the locals as the howling winds and sand crashed into the town's sturdy walls and heavily fortified gates.

"Phew, that was close, for a moment there I thought you weren't going to make it," Doctor Jackson commented as he ran down from the city walls, with the ambassador not far behind him.

"Almost as bad as the sandstorms on Mars," Kawalsky commented as he brushed off some sand.

"Welcome to Nagada city," said Kasuf as he approached the dishevelled Earth explorers, which Doctor Jackson translated for the rest. "The Victory feast is ready, you will sit with me," Kasuf continued as he turned back and led the Earthers deeper into the town.

* * *

As the storm raged outside the walls of Nagada city, inside an infectious atmosphere of happiness and frivolity ruled as the locals partied the night away, celebrating the demise of the creature that had been taking their people for centuries. A great feast was prepared for the visitors and Doctor Jackson was trying everything he could reach, while the rest were reluctant and stuck with the instant heat MREs they had brought with them, all having taken off their combat armour and wore just their standard BDUs with skin suits underneath, and had stored their armour with the rest of the packed gear.

"Daniel I don't think we should eat any of the local cuisine while we're here, at least until our medic has certified that it's safe for us," Kawalsky said in warning.

Doctor Jackson, who was munching on something that looked like a variety of naan-bread, dipped in some kind of local sauce, replied, "I think they would take it as an insult if we didn't at least try some of this."

Then the locals brought out the main course covered in brown cloth. It was unveiled to be a huge fat lizard, obviously cooked whole, and Daniel looked a little apprehensive at trying it.

"Well we wouldn't want to insult our hosts now would we, Daniel?" Kawalsky challenged, everyone of the expedition looked on with badly hidden smirks, most thinking he would chicken out.

With a little urging from Kasuf Daniel reached out and took one of the scales off its back with a little meat attached to it and took a bite. He chewed on it and was pleasantly surprised by the taste.

"Tastes just like chicken," he declared smiling. Kasuf and the locals didn't understand the term so Doctor Jackson tried to show them by clucking like a chicken and waving his arms up and down. Most of the expedition team members couldn't quite keep their laughter in as they watched the academic's antics, only the Captain and Ambassador maintained straight faces, while the locals just watched curiously at the strange man.

After everyone had wined and dined Ambassador Sheridan pulled the Doctor aside. "Ask Kasuf if has seen any of the Gate symbols anywhere, without those we won't be able to go home, right?"

Doctor Jackson nodded, walked over to Kasuf and sat down in front of him.

"Have you seen symbols like this?" he asked and drew the symbol for Earth and a number of random gate symbols in the soft sand, which Kasuf quickly erased and protested politely and offered Doctor Jackson a dessert while warning him.

"It seems that reading and writing is forbidden on this world," said Jackson and O'Neill groaned.

"I'm really getting annoyed by this Ra guy," he said in frustration.

The next thing Daniel knew he was whisked away by a small group of local women to one of the stone buildings surrounding the open area they were in.

"What's going on?" asked Sheridan through the translator.

"He is being prepared," said Kasuf.

"Prepared for what?"

"To be prepared for my daughter!"

"Why is he being prepared?" Sheridan asked, again through the translator.

"He is a messenger from Ra, our god, the pendant around his neck bears his mark, and I intend to offer my daughter to him as a gift, it is obvious that he is interested in her," said Kasuf to the surprise of everyone.

"That's barbaric," commented Lieutenant Carter, though too quietly to be picked up by the translator. She did not like the idea of a woman being given away like property, a sentiment shared by every one of the expedition members.

"Ambassador, a word please," Captain O'Neill asked. "Daniel only met her yesterday, now I don't know about you, but I think that's way too short a time to even discuss marriage between a two young people, even if both parties are interested in each other."

"I agree Jack, but like it or not until we can convince these people that Ra is a false god we cannot afford to break up those two, who knows, maybe this'll be the start of them integrating into the Earth Alliance."

"Beginning with a marriage?" O'Neill asked alarmed, to which the ambassador could only shrug.

"Looks like I'm going to have to change the frat regs a little," said the Captain as he worked his comm. unit and set it to the general comm. frequency. "O'Neill to all personnel, a revision to the Fraternization Rules, if you don't want to find yourself _married, repeat married_, keep your eyes to yourself. For questions, please _tease_ Dr. Jackson."

* * *

The ladies began disrobing Doctor Jackson of his BDU and tried to take off the skin suit, though they only managed to get off his boots, socks and shirt off, the good doctor drew the line when they tried to take his pants down, they only got to wash him a little, then he was shown into another room, where the woman he saw out in the mines was sitting on a small ledge covered in animal skins and pillows, wearing only a light gown which looked like simple cotton, but was so thin that it left nothing to the imagination, and Daniel was just stunned for a second, not quite believing his eyes.

Doctor Jackson then remembered where he was and sat down on the ground cross-legged in front of her, and asked, "Why was I brought here, and what are you doing here?"

"I am my people's gift to you," she answered demurely. "I am to be your wife."

Daniel could not believe his ears. She was going to be his wife and they didn't even know each other, not to mention they were from completely different cultures, even if they were of the same species.

"Why did they give you to me?" he asked nervously.

"You bear the seal of Ra," she said, indicating the necklace around his neck, hanging her head in shame. "Do you not find me pleasing?"

"Oh no, I do find you attractive, it's just that I don't know anything about you, and I prefer to get to know a woman before I marry her, and her to know me."

She seemed to brighten at that and asked, "Where do you come from?"

"I'll show you," said Daniel and began drawing in the sand again like with Kasuf, starting with the pyramid and their trek across the dessert. She averted her eyes from the sand drawing, but still listened to his tale. Daniel eventually gave up on writing and just told her. As he went to get some water from a nearby flask she looked down at the drawing and recognized the symbol. She deepened the lines of the pyramid and rubbed out the staircase and drew a small circle above the top. Daniel came back and watched her draw, and instantly recognized the symbol for the Earth Stargate.

He came down to eye level with her and looked closely at the symbol she had drawn. "Have you seen this symbol before and others similar to this?"

She nodded her head smiling hopefully.

"Show me!"

As the two left the tent in excitement, Daniel's vest with his comm. unit still attached sat forgotten on a table.

* * *

The morning after Doctor Jackson had been led away by the local women the party had begun to die down, and everyone was returning to their hovels to rest for the rest of the day, Kasuf decided that the people deserved a rest day since there were almost not a single man or woman who had slept a wink during the night. The sandstorm outside had died down and Ambassador Sheridan was beginning to worry about Daniel.

"Captain have you seen Doctor Jackson this morning?"

"No Ambassador, I haven't seen him at all."

"He's not answering his comm. unit and I can't find him anywhere in town."

Jack tapped on the touch-pad on his left-hand gauntlet. "Jackson where, the hell, are you?" No answer.

"Kawalsky, get your squad together and start searching this place, Carter you're with me, I'm going to talk to the locals," Jack ordered and picked up Doctor Jackson's helmet that he had taken off for the feast, Carter followed right behind him. He walked over to a group of youths, Skaara was among them.

"Do any of you know where Doctor Jackson is?" O'Neill asked. The youths didn't quite understand him. "He wore this helmet, has long hair and wears glasses," he said, describing with both words and actions, much to the amusement of Lieutenant Carter.

Skaara immediately caught on and started doing Doctor Jackson's chicken impersonation. He asked politely if he could have the helmet, which the Captain reluctantly gave, and Skaara ran off to one of the pens where a number of local beasts of burden were kept. He pressed the inside of the helmet into the muzzle of the beast and said something in the local language and opened the pen. It then ran off into the city, tracking the scent of Doctor Jackson all the way to its source.

They followed the animal to the entrance to some underground catacombs that ran beneath the city. O'Neill called for Kawalsky to join them at the entrance. It was easy for them to follow Daniel's and someone else's footprints to them with the torchlight from their helmets. He and a young woman were sitting in front of a wall covered in what looked like a mural of Ancient Egyptian writing and pictographs, Daniel pointing to different sections of the wall and talking animatedly with the young woman in the local tongue.

"Having fun Daniel?" Jack said to the doctor and local girl, startling them both.

"Captain, we were just..."

"Save it doctor, next time keep your comm. unit on you." Jack said shortly then turned his attention to the writing on the walls. "Have you been able to decipher this yet?"

"Yes, it's a sort of hidden written record of what happened here and on Earth when the people were first brought here," said Daniel, gesturing to the writing on the wall.

"What does it say?"

"It tells the story of how Ra came to our planet. It says a traveller from distant stars was searching for a way to cheat death, and apparently his entire species was on the verge of dying out. They found a world teeming with life, where they encountered a primitive species, humans," said Jackson as he pointed to a small series of pictographs on the wall showing some demonic looking creature coming out of some sort of pyramid, a single human looking figure facing it while a large crowd of human figures ran away. "A bright light appeared in the night sky, and night became day. The villagers fled in fear, except for one young boy, unafraid he walked towards the light. Ra took him and possessed his body like some sort of parasite, leaving his original body to die."

"He found that in a human body he could use his knowledge and technology to live indefinitely. Inhabiting this new human form he declared himself absolute ruler. He used the Stargate to bring slaves to work in the mines here. The mineral that is found here seems to be the basis for all of their technology."

Doctor Jackson then moved over to another set of pictographs and writings.

"There was a rebellion on Earth, the gods were driven away and the Stargate was buried. Fearing another rebellion here, Ra forbade reading and writing, he didn't want the people to remember the truth."

"Way to go for the ancient Egyptians," said O'Neill.

As Doctor Jackson explained what he had found, Carter took a look around the catacombs, using the lights built into her suit and helmet to illuminate the catacombs brightly. She quite literally stumbled across a large oval stone tablet with writing similar to the cover stones found at Giza.

Quickly she called out, "Captain O'Neill, Daniel, I suggest you get over her, I think I've found what we've been looking for."

As quickly as possible they raced towards Carter's position, where she was standing over the tablet, waiting patiently for them.

"This is it, the symbols for Earth, they must've hidden it here in the hope that the gate to Earth would be reopened again," said Doctor Jackson as he carefully dusted off the sand. A quick inspection of the large tablet yielded six of the required symbols, the last one, the point of origin, being worn off. Doctor Jackson smiled anyway.

"We have all six symbols for Earth now," he said smiling.

"Don't we need the point of origin, doctor?" Carter asked.

"The Gate is the same as ours; the only difference is the point of origin symbol on it, which was the first thing I identified. We now have a way home."

A beeping sounded from Carter's left gauntlet, which caught her attention.

"Sir the UAV's detected something entering the atmosphere. Whatever it is its big, generating gale force winds and electrifying the atmosphere," she said. "It's creating a powerful dust storm and seems to be heading for the pyramid where the Stargate is housed."

"How long till the storm dies down?" Captain O'Neill asked.

"I'm not sure sir, but probably no earlier than early morning."

"And the next dial-in should be within the next hour. Program the UAV to keep its distance from that ship, but close enough to get some readings on it and as soon as the gate opens have it begin sending data through the probe back to Earth through the stargate. We don't know what kind of threat these people are and I'd like to not make another enemy for Earth if I can help it."

"Yes sir," the Lieutenant replied and began sending instructions to the UAV.

"In the meantime we'll wait out the dust storm, and then take a look at this planet's latest visitor," said O'Neill. "Kawalsky, contact everyone and tell them to rig for EMCON (EMissions CONtrol), I don't want us to be detected by our visitors."

"Yes Sir," replied Kawalsky heading for the catacombs entrance.

* * *

Outside the city the sandstorm was raging across the desert. The ship that the UAV spotted was slowly making its way through the atmosphere. It was approaching the pyramid at a languid pace, the winds created by its powerful engines kicked up dust high into the atmosphere. As it closed with the pyramid great arcs of electricity connected the pyramid to the ship, melting the surrounding sand into glass as the arcs of electricity struck the ground. It began lowering itself down onto the pyramid, covering the pyramid completely and then clamped itself down and started to open up slowly, long trenches appeared in the middle of the faces of the pyramid ship, as the final clamps locked down into place it lit up like a Christmas tree.

The UAV recorded the whole thing on with its specialized cameras and sensors, recording every little detail of it. A large doorway opened up two thirds up the pyramid, just above where the trenches stopped, and two crescent shaped fighters came screaming out. The UAV immediately noticed them and its rudimentary AI assumed that it had been detected and was under attack. It then sent a signal back to its controllers on watch back at base-camp and awaited new instructions.

Back at the camp, inside one of the tents, a sleepy controller was awoken by an incessant beeping that sounded from the Golden Eye's control laptop. Wearily he looked at the recent photos and was shocked at what he saw.

"Guys, we've got some serious company here," he called out as he began manipulating the controls, switching the Golden Eye's data feed over to different sensors to get a better visual of this planet's latest visitor. Moments later Ferretti came into the tent and stood looking over the controllers shoulder.

"Alright, what have we got?"

"Looks like we've got a visitor, and they must have seen the Golden Eye, they've launched fighters," the tech reported as he began to manipulate the UAV's flight controls.

"Go to manual control and take evasive action, try and loose them in the dust storm, but make sure to fly away from us!" Ferretti ordered.

"Already on it," said the tech as he directed it into a steep dive towards the deck, heading straight for the swirling soup that was the dust storm to try to evade its pursuers, but the fighters kept on its tail and started shooting, though none of them landed a hit as it manoeuvred wildly, breaking their target lock multiple times, the UAV went to its maximum speed, hugging the sand dunes as closely as possible on a beeline straight for the mountains, away from the local settlement and their base of operations, weaving and ducking enemy fire as the alien fighters steadily closed in.

It soon enough reached the mountains and flew in amongst them, attempting to lose the enemy in the valleys, but the alien fighters were still hot on its tail. Short blasts of plasma erupted again from their cannons, saturating the airspace between them, and soon enough a plasma bolt clipped one of the UAV's wings, which sent it spinning down and crashed into the side of a cliff, the two alien fighters made a pass over the crash site, confirming their kill then returned to the pyramid ship.

There was silence in the tent as a sense of dread came down upon them. "I'll notify the Captain's team. He's going to just love this!" said Ferretti as he walked over to the side and opened a channel to the team in Nagada City.

* * *

As soon as Captain O'Neill, along with everyone who went with him into the catacombs, came out along with his missing archaeologist a beeping sounded from his comm. unit. "Hey Ferretti, what's going on?"

_"Captain, the aliens just shot down the Golden Eye,"_ Ferretti reported

"What?"

_"The pyramid ship that we saw on the UAV's scanners launched a pair of fighters that attacked it and shot it down in the mountains, not too far away from here,"_ he reported.

"Was there any warning from the ship?"

_"No warning at all, sir."_

O'Neill thought over the situation over for a few seconds, not liking the implications of this new hostile's actions.

"Alright, keep this channel open, I'm going to have a talk with the Ambassador and the local leader, see if I can shed some light on this thing's intentions."

_"Yes sir."_

Jack exchanged a worried glance with Carter and Kawalsky, Jackson only just now coming out of the catacombs. "Jackson, tell your girlfriend to find her father and tell him that we need to speak to him at our dwelling. Looks like the gods are returning."

Jackson merely nodded then had a few quick words with his fiancé who ran off to find her father, then the rest of the Earthers headed back to the dwelling they had been given for the duration of their stay.

"Before we do anything let's consider something," said Doctor Jackson quickly as he sat down on a pile of rugs next to his equipment. "These aliens might have taken our drone's actions as a possible threat or trespassing, assuming this is the same race that Ra belongs to."

"They didn't send any challenges, no queries about our intentions, they just blew it out of the sky the moment they detected it. If that's not hostile behaviour then I don't know what it is," said Kawalsky irritated with the optimistic academic.

"And assuming that this is the same guy, or at least the same race, that abducted these people from Ancient Egypt I don't think we'll get a warm welcome if we ask them if we could use the stargate to return home," commented Carter.

At that moment Sha're and Kasuf arrived with curious as well as worried looks upon their faces.

"What is wrong, my future son?" Kasuf asked Doctor Jackson.

"It appears that the..." Daniel paused a moment as he thought of a good translation for spaceship that Kasuf would understand. "Your gods chariot has arrived! Lieutenant show us the images of the pyramid again," Doctor Jackson requested and Carter displayed the recent images she got from the Eagle Eye of the Pyramid before it was destroyed.

Kasuf was speechless at the sight of his god's chariot. "It is too early, he is not supposed to come for another season, we have not built up our naquada stocks. He will also be displeased with you for killing his demon. He must not know that you are here!" Doctor Jackson translated for the rest of the Earthers benefit.

"Well it's a little late for that, and even if we try to hide it would only be a matter of time before they found us," said O'Neill.

"Maybe we can negotiate safe passage through the Stargate back to Earth," said Doctor Jackson, which elicited a few incredulous looks from the other expedition members. "It was just a suggestion."

"Doctor, as much as I would like a peaceful solution to this, they did shoot down our UAV, and have been keeping these people enslaved for over five thousand years," Sheridan pointed out. "But as you said we must at least try to negotiate with them, at least we would be able to get a better idea of what we're dealing with."

Captain O'Neill nodded in acceptance. "We'll head out when the dust storm ends and get a proper lay of the land, see if we can at least sneak our way back close to the pyramid. We'll wait until our people Earth side open the gate and we can inform them of the situation. The Amundsen and her escorts are only a couple of days away, so orbital support won't be far away. David, you up for negotiating with god tomorrow?"

Sheridan merely smirked back. "Should be interesting."

"I suggest we all get some sleep for now, it's been a long day and we could all use the rest," the captain recommended and everybody began to make themselves comfortable. Doctor Jackson was led out of the building the Earth explorers had been given by his fiancé and Jack couldn't help but quip. "Don't stay up too long Doctor Jackson, we're going to need you bright and early come morning."

* * *

The artificial storm raged all night long and only broke with the first rays of sunlight crept up the horizon. The expedition members quickly gathered everything they had brought with them to Nagada City and Doctor Jackson was quickly found half asleep, still fully clothed to Captain O'Neill's relief, with Sha're and was unceremoniously kicked out of bed and horrible military coffee rations poured down his throat to wake him up. Within a half hour after dawn Captain O'Neill and his team left the city, with Doctor Jackson looking back in longing, something the Captain couldn't help but pick up on.

"Don't worry Doctor Jackson. You may see her again, if all goes well," said the captain reassuringly.

Doctor Jackson merely hung his head and kept walking with the rest of the expedition team members, though everybody could sense the proverbial black cloud that hung over the young academic's head.

Within a couple of hours they were back at base camp, where Ferretti and his squad were waiting for them, all kitted out and ready to move out. After a few minutes rest for Sheridan and Doctor Jackson and a quick drink of water for everyone they continued on to the pyramid, once again thankful for the fully enclosed combat suits they were wearing.

After another few hours of trekking across the desert, following the still active beacon being transmitted by the probe they soon crested the final sand dune before they reached the pyramid, and the first thing they all thought was "Holy Shit."

The pictures they saw on Carters little laptop's display clearly didn't do any justice to the sheer scale of the ship that had settled itself atop of the pyramid. They watched as the top opened up, revealing a smaller pyramid inside with long windows that seemed to stretch from the smaller pyramid to just under the top.

"Wow," said Doctor Jackson in awe.

"I've seen bigger," Captain O'Neill quipped. "Ambassador I believe that this is your show," he continued, knowing that a possible First Contact situation was the reason for having the ambassador with them in the first place.

"For now I believe that just me and Doctor Jackson, along with two of your men should walk up to the pyramid and announce ourselves, while the rest stay back and cover our sixes," the Ambassador replied.

"You sure you want to do that Ambassador? Considering they just blew our drone out of the sky," the Captain challenged.

"Well, it would be a bad idea to just show up with a large group of heavily armed men. Besides just in case this Ra character turns out to be hostile you can come and rescue us," the Ambassador reasoned.

O'Neill reluctantly agreed, and the ambassador, Doctor Jackson and two more of his men continued on to the pyramid, the rest of the expedition sat tight behind the sand dune, observing the four men's progress. Soon enough they were noticed and three armoured soldiers with strange helmets that looked like the head of a bird of prey, their sharp beaks glistening in the sun, looking most impressive, walked out of the pyramid. They all carried long staffs and had some sort of sidearm on their left or right forearm.

All three aimed the end of their staffs at the four of them, the two to the sides staffs opened with a crackle of energy. The ambassador tried, through Daniel, to tell them that they came in peace, but a second later the two opened fire on the guards O'Neill had sent with the Ambassador, blasting them well back and into the sand, their tough ceramic composite armour held, but still knocked them both to the ground, pushing them deep into the sand unconscious.

The ambassador and doctor were then shot with the leader's sidearm, which fired a bolt of rippling blue energy which electrocuted them both, made them go stiff as a board then fell promptly to the ground, unconscious. The enemy soldiers then dragged them inside the pyramid, another pair came for the soldiers that had been shot and dragged them inside as well.

"Damn," O'Neill cursed quietly, grateful that his suit's HUD still showed life-signs from the four captives.

* * *

Still unconscious, the enemy soldiers tossed the two SFs into a cell and unceremoniously dragged the two civilians to a throne room, where the two of them woke up with splitting headaches and felt tingly across their skins. They tried to stand up, but one of the guards clipped their legs with his staff, forcing them to their knees before an Egyptian style throne. The walls were covered in various shades of gold and hieroglyphs, which to the eyes of Doctor Jackson and Ambassador Sheridan looked extremely gaudy. From the far end of the chamber appeared a figure in robes and wearing a pharaoh mask, surrounded by children. He came forth and sat down on the throne, his servants sitting down a second later. The one in the pharaoh costume made a hand gesture and the guards pressed a small hidden button on the necks of their amour.

Their helmets retracted into their armour, revealing them to be human, or at least humanoid. After the guards bared their faces the pharaoh uncovered his own face, the head piece retracting into his own armour, showing the face of a young Egyptian boy, possibly the same one who had been taken all those thousands of years ago.

**"Who do you serve? Who dares send humans into my domain?"** the pharaoh demanded in a boom box voice, Daniel translated for Sheridan.

"I am Mister David Sheridan, a representative of the Earth Alliance. You are Ra I presume?"

**"I am the Supreme System Lord Ra and I do not tolerate trespassers in my realm, now tell me, where are you from and which goa'uld do you serve?"**

"We do not serve any goa'uld, we're from the planet Earth, we only just recently uncovered our Stargate and this was the first address we dialled successfully," said Sheridan as Ra seemed to intimately caress the jewellery upon his right hand.

**"An interesting language your people have developed, an amalgam of several different dead languages, now we may speak without the translator, now answers my questions!"**

"How are you able to understand and speak our language?" Doctor Jackson asked

**"I am a god!"**

Ra thrust out his hand, a metallic gauntlet with a glowing jewel in its palm covered it. Out from the jewel a ribbon of energy shot out and connected to both Sheridan's and Doctor Jackson's foreheads, inducing a pain they had never felt before, a pain so great it felt like red hot knives were carving their way at their brains. As sudden as the pain began it stopped, leaving them both drained and in shock.

**"If you wish to avoid such pain in the future you had better answer my questions, now where are you from and where did you get your technology?"**

Doctor Jackson quickly answered. "Look, we uncovered our Stargate in Egypt three centuries ago, and it's only been just recently that we have been able to get it to work..."

**"What is this Egypt?"**

"Sorry that's our name for that land, you may know it as Kemet."

**"Kemet? You are from the Tau'ri home world. You have come far in such a short time." **He rose up from his throne and walked down to the two Earthers. **"Tell me, how far have you come; did you get your technology from the Asgard?"**

"We've never encountered a species called the Asgard," said Ambassador Sheridan. "In the last century, since we made First Contact with the Centauri and gained true interstellar flight we have been slowly expanding our territory and made some extraordinary progress, making contact with several other space faring races."

"**Do you still worship your ancient gods?"** Ra asked as he stood up from his throne and began to circle the two Earthers, like a predator eying up a tasty meal.

"No, we don't worship false gods, the practice of worshiping a pantheon of gods died out over a millennia ago, and we have evolved from those primitive beings you found ten thousand years ago to what you see today," said Doctor Jackson with a fire in his eyes as he stared into the cold dead eyes of Ra. "We are now an advanced space faring race and we do not give in to intimidation and trickery like a low-tech planet."

Ra's eyes glowed with a golden hue as the snake inside bristled with the young scholar's insolence, raised his hand and used the ribbon device on him again, making him silently scream in agony, the pain was so great he couldn't even scream out loud and he promptly collapsed as Ra disengaged his favourite torture device.

**"One more second and he would be dead,"** said Ra as he caressed the ribbon device and smiled cruelly upon his two captives. **"Now, tell me more about your world!"**

The two humans stayed quiet, both decided to mutually not to give this being any more information and hoped that O'Neill and the rest of the expedition would come for them soon.

"**Not so talkative now are you,"** said Ra as he again began circling them. **"Then I will just have to loosen your tongues!" **said Ra menacingly as he continued to question and torture them both for information about Earth, taking great pleasure in the screams of the young academic and the elder diplomat.


End file.
